The most important part of your wedding day: The ceremony

The flowers. The cake. The uplighting. Weddings have gotten away from what really matters and moved more towards the superficial of what is "expected at weddings."

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    I'll be the first to admit to you, that I am (or was) the same kind of bride. I work in the wedding industry. I research wedding trends A LOT and I read A LOT of blogs. But today, I had a revelation. It's not just about the whole wedding. It's about those 10-15 minutes that most people just want to get through so they can get to the party.

      Brides! This is the most important 10-15 minutes of your life and you are trying to rush it! Savor this moment with your one true love. Does it matter if the aisle runner is really straight or if the flower girl makes a fuss? No, what matters at the end of those 10-15 minutes is that you and your now husband are married. savor the moment. Look in each other's eyes. You will never have a wedding day with each other.

   I had every intention of turning this into a planning your wedding ceremony post, but after reading a blog post from Lara Casey, I am going to go transparent and just put it all out there. I met with one of my brides today and I have to tell you, she truly is a blessing sent from above. I rarely put my spirituality out in the open, just because as a planner and maybe a future educator, I want to appear transparent and open to all religions and types of ceremonies. I am still that same planner.
    My faith is strong. Always has been always will be. In the last year since I graduated college, my faith has definitely been tested. I never in all my dreams imagined that I would not have a "9-5" job after a year. Never imagined that God would truly bless me with some of the best clients and some clients who would test me as a coordinator and planner. "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 NLT.

My bride today asked if we could have prayer before we left. Okay. Fine. Great! Man. Talk about an unexpected 10 minute prayer making such an important impact on you. I have been thinking about who I am as a planner, who my target bride is and what it is I want out of life since I left Mt. Juliet today. I want to be the type of planner who serves brides that care more about the ceremony than they do getting drunk and wanting the most important 15 minutes of their live to fly by so they can hit the bar. I want to be a servant to my clients and serve them, but not be taken advantage of. I want to grow relationships with my clients and form friendships that last well beyond their wedding planning days. I am tired of the craigslist bride who takes advantage of you for your Month of Coordination or a bride who tries to wheasel every service out of you for full planning of $2000. I want to make a difference and I want to put God first in everything I do, even my wedding planning business. "I can do all things through Christ who Strengthens me." Philippians 4:13.

A sermon that the pastor who is marrying us preached a few years ago sticks with me every day. The scripture comes from James 4:13-16.

 ¹³ Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” ¹⁴ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. ¹⁵ What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil."

We don't know where our lives will be a year from now, let alone tomorrow. Make the most out of what you have now and make things happen while you have the time! I am ready to make things happen!

Engaged since 2008, but why 2010 to get married?- 4 months to go.

To give you a little background, James and I got engaged on December 12, 2008.  I was still in college and attempting to finish in 3 years. To view our entire engagement story visit here...Clarksville Brides: Hillary and James

But why 2010 to get married when I could have easily planned our wedding in a year? Here is why. 2010 has been an exceptionally busy, but exciting year in the Capes household.  In April, we celebrated my grandparent's 50th anniversary. This event was truly special and celebrated what I consider to be the essence of making a marriage last and true love.

(Circa 1960)

Here are some pictures from their event:

Our family is super talented so everything was completed by us for the event! My sister, Courtney, took the photos, my grandmother made her own cake and catered the event and my mom and aunt, Sonja, did the flowers!

 Yesterday, we celebrated my mom and dad's 25th anniversary. A wonderful surprise celebration was held at my mom's office suite here in Charlotte!

(Circa 1985)

Today is their real anniversary and also the anniversary of the day we moved to Tennessee 15 years ago from Illinois on their 10th wedding anniversary!

So why 2010? We believe that with having these VERY special events in 2010 resulting in long lasting marriage is an omen that ours will be a long lasting wedding as well! 

Why did you pick your wedding date?

Real Wedding Inspiration: Pink!

I don't know about every other woman or girl, but when I was a little girl, I LOVED Barbie dolls! In fact, I still get a new Holiday Barbie EVERY Christmas! But what I loved infact was the pinkness of the dolls! Everything was pink and all her accessories were pink.  Now what I love is a Bride who utilizes every shade of pink and pulls it off fantastically!

Photos by: Erin Thacker Photography

Flowers by: Flowers By Trish and your day of fairy tales

Look at the variety in these flowers!

The Bride wanted a beautiful floating gerbera daisy arch to be married under!

Beautiful Favor Table Display incorporating varying shades of pink

Beautiful Cocktail table arrangement. Notice the fushia uplighting provided by Nashville Audio Visual

Check us out next week for some more wedding inspiration!

Real Nashville Wedding Recap: Rebecca + Joey- March 20, 2010

Wow. It has been a while since I have posted a blog and to my readers: I apologize. Things certainly have been crazy around here and for that we have many blogs and inspirations to show you!

The first Real Wedding we are pleased to feature for this year is the wonderful Spring time wedding of Rebecca and Joey! Rebecca contacted me in Mid- January and contracted me for Month of Service. From the moment we met, I knew that their wedding was going to be fun filled and full of love by the way she talked about Joey!

Rebecca and Joey: Here is to a life time of happiness and many more years to come!

Rebecca is a zookeeper at the Nashville Zoo and works with the Birds! Several elements of her wedding included birds or bird feathers!

Rebecca choose a color palette of dark blue, apple green and white to represent the bird she most closely works with at the zoo.

The beautiful Edgefield Baptist

All the Wonderful Vendors who this day could not have happened without:

Photography: Tiffany Zajas
Reception Venue: Holiday Inn-Opryland
Ceremony Venue: Edgefield Baptist Church
Cake: The French Confection
Flowers: Hermitage Florist
DJ: Nashville Party Authority
Officiant: Ralph Griggs

Inspiration Tuesday: Clementine and Pewter

Having been looking for inspiration for a bride that is getting married in September, I stumbled upon this Pantone wedding inspiration board. I absolutely LOVEEEE Pewter mixed with a bright pop of color.  This color combo and think it would be perfect for a fall wedding or even a bright cheery summer outdoor wedding.

Happy Planning!

And The Winner is... and History of the Garter

Miss Kriss!! 

Congrats! In March, we will be doing an even better give away to make up for our missed February! 

In the mean time, Here is a little History of the Garter.

"Tossing the wedding garter is an old  time held tradition.  It is said that in the days gone past, the bride and groom had to  show proof of their wedding consummation.  In order for it to be proven, it was common tradition to have people like family and friends come into the room with the couple.  The "witnesses" would obtain the garter as "proof" of the consummation.   Also having any article of the under garments was considered to be good luck so sometimes things would get out of hand in the newly wed's bedroom as crazed onlookers snatched at clothing to get for good luck.  This was not appreciated much by the bride nor many grooms, hence the groom started tossing the garter out so that no one would need to obtain it themselves. 
( How barbaric this sounds! glad things have changed since then)  

 

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Because of modesty, this tradition has been modified and moved from the bedroom to the reception.   Now today we have the traditional garter toss, which is meant to bring good luck to the man who catches it.  He is said to be the next one to marry.  In some cultures the men stand and wait for the garter to be tossed.  Other cultures they actually compete for it.  The men may compete for the garter in a foot race or by horse (this is a medieval practice).  At least it is better than having the men chase the bride and put her upside down to get the garter off... This is what used to happen!  In yet other places, they even auction the garter off.  As strange as these twists on the wedding garter tradition may sound, it's all just a tradition.  Take it or leave it. 
or should I say "Take it or Toss it! "

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Are you participating in this tradition? Why or Why not? What was your deciding factor?

Give A Day- Get a Day: GREAT HONEYMOON MONEY SAVER

I'm sure you have all seen the Muppet commercials where they are building a house with Jamie Denton from Desperate Housewives. Well these commercials have ignited a spark so I went to the website to see what it was all about. When I got there, I quickly realized there were 200+ volunteer opportunities in the Middle Tennessee area. WOW! As I begin looking through them one particular stands out to me. Project Linus is a nationwide charity that provides blankets to children in times of dismay. Some of the most noteworthy that PLN provides to are:

Monroe Caroll Jr Children's Hospital
Vandy NICU
TN Dept. Of Children's Services
Ronald McDonald House
Wilson County Fire and Rescue
and many more.

Now you're probably thinking what does this have to do with wedding planning.. WELL IT DOES!

You see James has never been to Disney World nor Florida and that is where we are honeymooning. Being a Budget bride myself, this is a GREAT way to not only give back to your community, but also get a FREE TICKET TO DISNEY which saves $45 each! That is $100 we can put towards something else!

So, what do I want other blogger brides to do with this information? I want you to check out the website, and find a way that you can volunteer.

2010 is the year to pay it forward and do something for others!

Happy Planning!